Industrial lighting fixtures or luminaires are employed in almost every type of industrial application, whether it be steel mills, electronic assembly, forging operations, machine shops or the like. Industrial lighting luminaires are generally designed to operate mercury, metal halide or high pressure sodium lamps in a variety of industrial applications. Ease of installation is an important factor in the design of industrial lighting fixtures since they are generally mounted adjacent the ceiling in what can be extremely high work areas, as for example high bay storage areas. Additionally, the reflectors should have the facility to be quickly and easily removed for purposes of cleaning. Of course, simplicity in construction and reduction in materials is always important with respect to manufacturing costs of commercial products.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,511,984 issued May 12, 1970 to R. G. Blaisdell et al. for a "Lighting Fixture" is illustrative of one type of hinged latching mechanism for interconnecting a reflector to an industrial lighting fixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,459 issued Nov. 11, 1975 to F. Van Steenhoven for "Luminaire Ballast Mounting System" is illustrative of one means for mounting the ballast housing of an industrial luminaire and further discloses the separation of the transformer and capacitor ballast compartments to provide a low profile industrial luminaire.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,019 issued Oct. 12, 1976 to de Voss et al. for "Lighting Fixture" discloses a ballast housing mounting system in an industrial luminaire which employs a pair of hinges at each end of the luminaire to permit the top cover and sides of the ballast housing to pivot away for purposes of mounting as well as access to the wiring compartment of the ballast housing.